Patient medical information, such as that contained in a medical record, allows health care providers to provide continuity of care to patients. It is critical for clinicians providing care to patients to review and update each patient's medical record. The growth in access to, and utilization of, electronic medical records by healthcare providers and facilities has significantly reduced the time and organization efforts required by paper medical records. Unfortunately, this growth has introduced new problems. Medical records associated with the incorrect patient are often mistakenly viewed without knowledge by the clinician.
Exacerbating this problem further, clinicians are constantly on the move. For example, clinicians are responsible for patients in multiple healthcare facilities or multiple areas within a single healthcare facility. Each area or each facility may have different software applications or different components within an application supporting various aspects of the clinicians working in those areas or facilities. While making rounds, clinicians are constantly required to log into different devices and applications or change views from within an application to perform their duties. Time spent logging into applications, navigating to the appropriate view or area within an application, and then locating the correct records can adversely impact any efficiency gained by utilizing electronic medical records.